Mr Ambassador,

IT IS WITH GREAT PLEASURE that I welcome you on the occasion of the presentation of your Letters of Credence. I thank you for the kind sentiments that you have expressed on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand. For me the ceremony today also evokes the remembrance of my personal impressions of your country: the beauty that I saw, the hospitality that I enjoyed, the hopes that I experienced in your midst.

Your Excellency has just enunciated a principle of great importance: that efforts made to increase the quality of life redound to peace. In this regard you have spoken about the aid and assistance given by New Zealand to developing countries. On its own part the Holy See cannot but encourage all generous and just initiatives that promote human dignity and fraternal concern. The humanitarian commitment of the nations of the world, working in international cooperation, is indeed an effective means of promoting a stable peace. And the Holy See will continue, with God’s help, to uphold this cause and to support all those who make it their own.

At the centre of the quest for peace and progress in individual countries and in the world is the human person – every human being. Numerous situations in different places urgently call for redoubled efforts on the part of all people of good will in the particular area of human rights. In this last quarter century of the Millennium a pressing obligation faces all humanity to proclaim and to safeguard all human rights – and to respect them in their concrete application in each man and woman.

In attesting to these priorities I note with pleasure your reference to the commitment of New Zealand in this area. In the spirit therefore of friendly collaboration touching vital areas of human living, may your mission be happy and successful. On you, Mr Ambassador, and on the authorities and all the people of your country I invoke the sustaining blessings of God.

*AAS 71 (1979), p.1358-1359.

Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, vol. II, 2 pp. 48-49.

L’Attività della Santa Sede 1979 pp. 499-500.

L'Osservatore Romano15.7.1979 p.1.

L'Osservatore Romano. Weekly Edition in English n.32 p.2.

© Copyright 1979 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana